In any normal year, for the past five years or so, we'd be planning and shopping and texting and organizing and packing and making all the last minute arrangements for a departure to Pennsylvania, tomorrow, Thursday, the third weekend in July. You know, who is preparing dinner what night, which musical-chair/cabin assignments need changing, who will arrive first to pick up the keys, where to drop off the dogs, checking out the weather forecasts. All of the above.
Thanks a lot Covid. Maybe next year.
Another reason to thank Covid is that today is tax day. Did anyone hear a roar?
Well, we can thank Covid as well for Annie's presence in the Berkshires for a few months. She and Sankar arrived on July 4 weekend and set up shop in a large house in Great Barrington, with lots of room for their two cats. Yes, the cats fared well on the drive across country. They have lots of stories, including a surprise haircut for Sankar, surprise at least to Daniel who did the honors in his gentlemen's establishment. Claire, by the way, finished up her work at the Green Lake camp, and returned home to Dundee for a while. We continue to see beautiful macramé projects that are keeping her occupied.
Margaret and Andrew and Simon made the trek north again, this time to help celebrate Annie's birthday and to help Mary in her heart recovery project by allowing her more time to play with Simon. He's growing, he's smiling and engaging, and even sleeping almost through the night…. sometimes. OK, a couple of times. Maybe once. At least I'm sleeping through the night.
Timmy joined us for Annie's birthday party, that we had outside, with an elongated picnic table, all healthy. Until we all forgot that blowing out the candles on the ice cream cake may not have been approved by Dr. Fauci. Oh well. All for one…..
We've had some Zoom moments with Brazil, and Joe started back to work this week. Upstairs. It will be challenging for all, especially for Leonor as she juggles caring for Baby John and Thomas. Thanks a lot Covid, again. But, we do get a big kick out of our Zoom reading sessions with Thomas.
Peter passed along a message he got from an old neighbor on Given Road in Cincinnati. In this age of e-mail and instant messaging, it only took Peter Hagist nine years to respond to Peter's original query. Still, it was a blast from the past – how do you catch up on 60 years in one email?
And from this week's old letters: "Among the other highlights were two trips to the dump! This has got to be the only place in America where children cry because they are not going to the dump in the van." This was in a letter written on February 29, 1989 after an all-hands on deck weekend in Pomfret, before we caught a plane to start our assignment in Durban.
Saving the best news for last, Mary's heart valve replacement procedure went well. She spent the night in the hospital, and, since the hospital had just opened up for visitors I was able to spend a couple of hours with her in the recovery room. She's gone from groggy to tired, cautious to bouncy, and tomorrow will be two weeks since the surgery – a magical point on the timeline when the doctor said she could start swimming. Guess where she will be first thing in the am? On the medical front, she has reported feeling no angina tightness since the procedure, even after walking and light gardening.
Well, we'll miss seeing everyone at Mt. Springs, miss the loud talking-over conversations on the porches and the quieter chats as well, miss the board games and reading and swimming and fishing and walking along the path, miss the messes and the good food and group photos.
That's it from up here. Love
